I have 9 people on my ticket list, and I’m virtually certain I’m forgetting one. Their initials are: Family = [PR, BR, JR, BR, MR], Friends = [SEB, MB, DGM, MW]. I think the final ticket belongs to EMC, but I honestly don’t remember if I talked to her about it. EMC, will you let me know?

This is my plan: I am heading to SLO on the 9th (which is, incidentally, my birthday… hint hint) to pick up the cap, gown, and tickets. If you are staying in SLO, which I think means: MB, DGM, MW, (and EMC) – your tickets will be at my apartment. Access to my apartment can be gained through the following people: PNC, EMC, and MW (once he gets a key from me). The rest of us will be up in Cambria.

There will be a dinner afterwards, at 18:30. It will be held at Brambles in Cambria. I think we have reservations for 12.

So, notice is given. This is about all I know about the event. More information can be had from Cal Poly’s Commencement Site, Myself, or my wonderful Mom (and Dad).

I am really starting to appreciate the blend of education I received (often at the expense of my pleasant demeanor…) in terms of what I’m able to do now as a grad. People often heckled me about how much (old) hardware I have and questioned it’s use. While some of it may have sat on the floor for long stretches, it all proved worth it when I could on-a-whim install a new OS on some machine and just play with it. Learning is all about experimentation, and I like to experiment. I think this is exactly why I’m comfortable in pretty much any open-source Unix and can make a fair pass at competent on proprietary systems. Hell, I can even do OS X and Windows.

I know at least two of you who read this are pursuing degrees in computer science. It’s one thing to have a degree, but the market now is such that a degree won’t get you a job in the field. The US market for developers and engineers are whittling down to the people who actually care about what they do. They enjoy writing code, designing software systems, and experimenting with new stuff. This passion will get you the experience that will help your marketability. At least one of you who reads this understands this…

Anyway, I think I’m done ranting a bit. As I write this, I am thinking of ways to get a newer version of OpenBoot on my Blade 100 (which simply refuses to get taken…). The 15GB Seagate drive promptly died 5 years and 1 month after its manufacture date and OBP is refusing to boot from CDROM for some unknown reason. Thanks to the fine folks over at Debian, I have a fresh install of Debian going onto the 1 working drive via netboot (you have to give that to Sun, netboot is really useful and this machine is really old.)

[Update at @ 17:36 - A sweet tip from ciaranm in #gentoo-sparc got my cdrom drive working again. I took the machine outside and gave it a pretty severe dusting off and recabled it. Works fine now. Going to give Solaris 10 a try now...]

I also sit here dreaming of a faster pipe. I tried getting AT&T to bump my DSL to 3mbit, but I’m rather unfortunately far from the central office. I installed Ubuntu on my work machine, and I sucked data off the DS3 like it was a fire hose. Sweet delicious 45mbit.

Anyhoo. I also got paid yesterday. Sweet mercy me, I haven’t had this much cash in a while.

Degrees Awarded:
Bachelor of Science                     Mar 17, 2006
College of Engineering
Major:   Computer Science

I am now officially a Cal Poly graduate and alumnus. Yay!

I would like to extend thanks to the following people for helping me move: Mom and Dad, Myles, Paul, Kevin, and Kim for helping my move go smoothly. These people represent the best in friends, major thanks all

I’ll spare you all the nitty gritty of the move, but I will say that I am now the occupant of a modest 2-bedroom apartment in Clovis (near Fresno). It’s in need of additional furnishing, but right now it’s comfortable with my two cats, a cat tree, a few desks, bed, and a tv. On the list of things to get: couch, coffee table, night stands, and a bed frame. If severe boredom sets in next week, I might roll up to Sacramento and visit Ikea with mom.

Ranting: AT&T/SBC are huge pains in the asses. It took forever before I could find a rep who could order DSL on the promo package, since their blasted web site wouldn’t recognize my new telephone number. They really need to work on their ordering system. Unfortunately, I am somewhat stuck with them as the cable lines in my apartment have been appropriated by Dish Network (and Comcast is unbelievably expensive!). Dish Network also proved to be a bit of a pain in the ass, by contracting with the worst installers ever: LinkUs Enterprises. Luckily, they (Dish Network) found me a authorized retailer nearby who performed the installation to my specifications. Actually, this authorized retailer (Advanced Entertainment Systems) came out a mere hour after I called and did a superb job. Instead of attaching the dish to the top of the air conditioner like I specified, he bracketed it to the air conditioner mount – something I hadn’t thought of but is a much better idea. He even, at my request and with my assistance (I watched the signal reading) optimized the Dish pointing. Woot.

Oh, and by the way, I passed all my classes. Not only did I pass Physics, I passed it with a higher grade than any of my Poly physics classes.

That’s all for now.

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Which brings me to a little bit of news for those of you not in regular contact with me… I took the job at Pelco. I’m starting there in April, and Sarah and I started looking for apartments in Clovis. We found a pretty sweet place where I’ll be starting the application and lease process this weekend when I’m in town (again). I think at the rate I’m visiting Fresno, Sarah might owe me a trip over here on her next free weekend…

Anyhoo, about the apartment and stuff – it’s sweet. I hope everything works out and I get it.

I returned to San Luis Obispo on Thursday (extremely limited Sarah access while she did CBDA stuff and I have no other friends in Fresno to speak of) night, went out to beer with the dudes and the honorary dude E, slept, and went to Riverside the next morning. Got to see Riverside, play in a junk yard, play lots of pool, admire the cool McFadyen residence, get to know Merry Bear a bit better (though she did try to goad me into a political scuffle), and put back a few beers. The McFadyen’s were awesome hosts… major points to them.

And here we are… I’m going to sort some papers now then head out to a study session hosted by Dr. Zammit for my physics midterm on Friday. T-minus a little over 3 weeks till I’m done!

w00t.

To get to school, I take route 1 from Orcutt and Laurel to the Transit Center. From there, I board route 6b from the Transit Center to Cal Poly, and then move about my day. Normally, this isn’t a problem. This morning, however, it was a problem.

I got to Orcutt and Laurel at 10:26 this morning, fully 5 minutes before route 1 is supposed to depart that stop. As I am walking up Orcutt, I see the bus pulling away from the stop and moving down its route. I swore a little, and decided to run up Laurel Lane to catch it at Laurel and Southwood. I, again, missed the bus. I swore – again.

I called SLO Transit to report that route 1 is moving about 5 minutes ahead of schedule (== way ahead) and they promise to hold it at Laurel and Augusta for me. No problem, Laurel and Augusta is a short walk from my current location. Of course, when I get there, no bus.

I call SLO Transit again, and they profusely apologize. They say they can’t reach the bus driver at all. They offer, and I agree, to come pick me up and ferry me to my destination. A few minutes later, a white SLO Transit van shows up (Mobile 1) with the nice dispatcher, and takes me to school. That was nice of ‘em.

Anyway – I wanted to vent (again).